The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-01-27

l. The printing of the delinquent
tax list must be let to the loUest bid
der.
2. The annual statement must be
published III some newspaper Of general
circulation III the county.
3. Other notices must be given by
publication
All of the above are under the laws
of 1873
4. The law OF 1879 provides that the
Commissioners shall cause their pro.
ceedings To be published in some news
paper in the county. and in this law,
and IN no other, land. this relates to the
proceedings of the Board only is the
following provisions: I'm designating
the paper or papers the character and
value thereof as 4 medium for getting
the proceedings before the tax payers
of said county respectively shall be
taken into consideration"
The contracts were to be let sepa-
rately, l) on delinquent tax list
which must be let to the lowest bidder
without regard to circulation of pa
pers; ~ all other printing. including
annual statement and proceedings OF
the Board. On this last class the
Board notified the editors Of the Globe
and ADVANCE that in letting the con-
tract therefor they would take into
consider alton the circulation of the "a.
pers rs the law required US to do on
the proceedings.
Both papers brought in bids. Meth
er of them in proper shape. Miller had
made but one bid for the whole work.
yet dividing it into two classes. Mr.. H.
had two bids. and on the delin0uent
tax list, where circulation cuts no fie.
ure, but the lowest bidder gets it. he
offered to circulate 1900 extra copies of
his paper III the county. He had con.
nected his offer Of extra circulation
with the wrong class of printing. Now
this offer to furnish 1900 extra comics
of his paper by Mr.. Hitchcock was
either a trap to catch the Board or it
was an open confession that he had no
real circulation among the tax pavprs
of this county. aud if he had no circu
latiOn. we could not. under the law.
give him any of the printing, much
less the printing OF the proceedings of
the Board.
The Board rejected both bids as thew
had a perfect right to do.
On the second day, all parties knew
that Miller's bid was the lowest on
both classes of the work, and he was
clearly entitled to it on every ground.
and when the editor of the Globe saws
the Board did not try to find if that
was so. he knows he is stating false
hood. because in his presence we re-
quested the county Auditor, who was
then acting as his champion, to find
the data in his office whereby we could
settle the relative amounts Of the diff
ferenJ kinds of work. and Mr.. Mills
could not or would not find it. and tie
Board were forced to rely wholly upon
their own judgment on those mat.
tqrs.
Again. connected with this last bid
Of Mr.. Hitchcock of the '+lobe was an
offer to furnish 1900 extra copies of his
paper to the resident tax PAYERS of
this county But strange to say. thos4
vapers were the ones that were to con.
tain the annual statement, and the otfer
was confined strictly to that. Please
remember that it was where the pro.
cpedings Of the Board were printed
that we should take into account the
circulation. as the law says. Now. I
think that 1900 papers would furn ish
every resident taxpayer of Mobiles co
with i paper. Is this a newspa, er
that is bidding for this work or is il
8 mply job printer and he was trying
to put up ~ job on the board.
The iSoard did know that the AD-
VANCE had the largest circulation Of
any paper in the county and it did not
need to make buncomb offers of flu
ture circulation to enable it to COM
pete for this work.
There are other matters connected
with that article that would like to
refer to, but this article is already long
enough.
In closing, I again ask, Why did
Mills write that article? 1t is full of
Misrepresentation and abuse of the
whole Board. The clerk of the Board
publicly and Intentionally insults the
whole Board, accusing them of crimes
in connection with their work. Does
he expect by this means to assist the
Board in their work, or is it u declara
ton of war by Mr.. Mills against the
Board? If war, what is his object, un.
less to cover up some of his own crook
edness?
J. A. Town. Com. 5th Dist.